To pass on beauty
by Plantress
Summary: A series of fics that focus on Aphrodite and Misty sharing a student/teacher relationship
1. Similarities

A/N: I wrote these because, back when I was first watching Saint Seiya, my first thought upon seeing Aphrodite was 'Ah, so he must be Misty's master'. I think the thought of them having that sort of relationship is fascinating and hadn't seen a story where they had that sort of relationship.

**Similarities**

Aphrodite was enjoying afternoon stroll in the sun when he heard the sniffling. Normally the teenager would have ignored the sound, but the path he was walking on went right by the small stone outcropping it was coming from and he was in the mood to be distracted. As he passed the stone, he slowed and wandered around to the other side. Huddled on the ground behind the rocks was the source of the noise. It was a trainee, hugging his legs to his chest with his chin resting on his knees. The boy didn't appear to have noticed his arrival yet. Aphrodite studied him a moment before speaking.

"Saints don't cry." At the sound of his voice, the boy yelped and shot up, nearly falling as he did so. Aphrodite couldn't help but smile, amused by his reaction. The boy however, didn't seem to appreciate the humor and glared at him.

"I wasn't crying!" the boy protested, trying to wipe the remains of his tears away and wincing as he did so. He did have a rather spectacular black eye, which might be part of why he was out here. The boy was young and did look as if he had been here that long. This might be the first time he had been given an injury like that in his life.

"Then what were you doing? It certainly sounded like you were." Aphrodite crossed his arms and considered the child. Now that he was paying more attention he could see that the black eye was only one of the child's injuries. He was covered in small bruises and cuts, and streaked with dirt. In short, it looked as if he had come off badly in a training session. Yet despite that, although the boy flushed in embarrassment he didn't seem cowed.

"I wasn't!" he snapped. "I was….thinking!"

"Yes, I'm sure you were. You were only sniffling because you have a cold, I assume?"  
the boy just glared, his hands clenching.

"It's none of your business!"

The boy tried to look intimidating but only managed to look annoyed and sulky all at once. The combination looked so amusing that Aphrodite couldn't help but chuckle. The boy did not like that.

"Shut up!" the boy glared at him almost shaking with fury. "Stop making fun of me!"

"Why should I?"

With a snarl of rage the boy charge at him. Aphrodite simply sidestepped his punch, noting with some interest that there was a lot of potential in the cosmo he caught from the boy. It was very strong for his age. The boy stumbled as he missed, and bit his lip. He looked close to tears again, but these seemed to be more of anger or frustration.

"Are you with them? Is that why you're making fun of me!?"

"Just what were they making fun of you for?" Aphrodite asked idly. That punch had been rather pathetic, even for a trainee. Either the boy really hadn't been here that long, or he was a very poor student.

The boy tensed at his words, then flushed.

"They keep telling me that I don't belong here, that I should be training with the girls." He growled at last. "They say I'm to weak to be a real Saint and should just go home!"

There reply stunned Aphrodite for a moment. Teasing and bullying was nothing new amongst the trainees. It was even encourage to a certain degree since it was believed to help make them stronger. But those works brought back far to many old memories.  
_'Are you sure you even belong here? You're too pretty to be a boy!'_ Aphrodite shook his head to clear the phantom voices from long ago away. Looking closer, he realized that beneath all the injuries and dirt that boy was very delicate with a pretty face and curly blond hair. While that would probably endure him to the old ladies in Rodario, it would do little to make him accepted by the other trainees.

"If it annoys you so much, there is a simple solution you know. Just teach them a lessons about making fun of you." Aphrodite was sure that the boy was aware of that option, and his next words confirmed that.

"I tried to! But there were a lot of them and they were bigger than me!"

"So you lost the fight. That's not really an excuse. A true Saint can win no matter what the circumstances. Perhaps they are right, and you do not belong here."

"Stop it!" The boy drew back his fist.

"Your form is sloppy." The boy paused in confusion and Aphrodite took the opportunity to walk over to him and nudge the boys foot back a little. "You need to put more weight on your back leg. If you want power, you need a solid base. If you don't have that, you have nothing."

"L..like this?" the boy sounded uncertain, but he did listen.

"Almost." Aphrodite nudged him back into a more stable stance, then walked back around to stop in front of him. "Now, try to hit me again."

"Umm.." the boy gave him a started look, then nodded determinedly. He took his time, then finally darted forward with a solid punch. Aphrodite still caught it easily. "Good," he said approvingly. "That's better. You do need to learn to put more power behind your strike though. Exactly how long have you been in Sanctuary."

"A month I think…"

"A month?" Aphrodite frowned. That didn't seem right. At the very least a competent teacher should have been able to hammer home the basics of combat, particularly to a student that seemed to pick things up as quickly as this boy did. "Just who is your Master?"

"…Master Zeke." the boy admitted. It took a moment for Aphrodite to place the name but once he did It explained much. This boy did not have a proper teacher, which explained his relative skill level right now.

Zeke was not a proper Saint. He was the man that the Pope had assigned to go around gathering promising looking orphans. When he had a good sized group, he brought them back to Sanctuary to being their training. They would be trained in that group until the more promising ones that had managed to survive in Sanctuary were handed over to proper teachers. Being trained in a group like that meant there was bound to be some who fell behind. Zeke didn't have much of a cosmo himself, so he couldn't really sense that in the trainees he found. It didn't matter to him the cosmo potential they had. If they feel behind in their physical training, even for a moment, he would ignore them. It was one of the harsher realities of Sanctuary.

The boy must have fallen behind for some reason. It could have been anything…an injury, not understanding what Zeke had wanted, even just the shock of ending up in a place so different from where he had been born. Regardless, that was enough to damn him. It was why most trainees didn't survive a year here.

But this one, this boy had such potential. Was it right to just let it waste away when the Pope had said they need more Saints? Perhaps if he had a competent teacher…

_What am I thinking?_ He didn't take on students. He didn't like teaching, nor did he have time for it. Besides, it was to much of a risk. No one could be allowed to know what he did about the Pope. If anyone else found out, they would be killed.

But…the boy reminded himself of when he was younger. Pretty looks did not get you far in Sanctuary, but he had been fortunate enough to have the double buffer of a competent teacher and the knowledge that he was training to be a Gold Saint to deflect some of the bullying. For someone with none of that…

"Are you serious about wanting to become stronger?" he asked the boy.

"Of course! I'm going to become stronger than they are! I'll become the best, the strongest ever and I'll make them regret picking on me!"

"..Very well then," Aphrodite said, a small smile touching his lips as he saw the look on the boys face. "What is your name?"

"Michel," the boy said after a moment. "But they keep saying it should be Misty 'cause that's better for a girl." He looked away.

"Well, they can call you whatever they wish. It's only what you answer to that matters." Aphrodite turned away from the boy. "Now come along, Michel."

"…Come along?" Michel asked in confusion.

"I thought you wanted to learn to beat those who were picking on you?" Aphrodite looked back at him. He would not become a teacher to this boy, no, but he would offer some guidance. If Michel truly was as good as he seemed, that was all it would take.

"Why would you help me?"

"Because I do have some experience in dealing with those who mistake beauty for weakness." He gave the boy a rather pointed look. Realization dawned on the boy and Aphrodite smiled. "Well, are you coming?"

".Y..yes!"

Aphrodite started walking, and in a few seconds Michel ran to catch up with him.

"Don't worry," he said to the boy once he was close enough. "I'll make you strong enough that no one will ever be able to touch you again."


	2. To impress

**To Impress**

"Lord Aphrodite?" Misty poked his head into the private rooms in the Pisces temple. There was no sign of the Gold Saint in the main room, and the eleven year old couldn't sense his cosmo anywhere nearby. He felt a surge of disappointment and decided to go check to make sure he wasn't sleeping or something. Misty had been looking forward to showing Lord Aphrodite the new attack he had perfected. After all, he was the one who had enabled him to get his far.

When he had first arrived in Sanctuary a year ago, he had been completely confused and a bit scared. This was completely different from anything he had ever known and everyone one else was speaking a completely different language that took effort to even understand. Lord Aphrodite had been the one to find him, take him under his wing and teach him how to be a truly great warrior. He had been the one that helped him train new attacks and showed him how to stand up for himself. Misty knew he owed Lord Aphrodite everything. Now he wanted to show him he had made the right choice by helping him.

"Lord Aphrodite?" There was no one in the bedroom when he looked inside, although Misty could catch the tell-tale sent of roses that seemed to linger everywhere in the temple. He knew that he should leave and go wait for Lord Aphrodite outside, or at the foot of the temple, but now he was curious. He had never been this deep into the Pisces Saint's rooms before, and now he was curious. Cautiously, feeling very much as if were doing something wrong, he crept inside the room.

The bedroom was as elegant as Lord Aphrodite himself and very richly appointed. It was much different from his own hut and Misty felt a little jealous. He could catch a glimpse of a rose garden through a closed window, and he wondered if that was the famous rose garden that Lord Aphrodite used to help guard Lady Athena.

As he was wondering that, he caught site of the dressing table near the window. It was covered with many tiny bottles and tubes of things. Curiosity losing out to caution he went over to investigate it. He knew Lord Aphrodite wore make up, but he hadn't really thought much about it beyond that. Now, looking at everything that actually made up that make up, he was curious. He stared at the tiny bottles for a moment, then reached out for one. Surely it wouldn't be too hard to put on.

A few minutes later, a midst a seat of opened bottles, Misty had come to the conclusion that putting on makeup was like everything else Lord Aphrodite did. He made it look effortless but it was really hard once you tried it. Lord Aphrodite looked elegant when he wore makeup. Looking at his reflection Misty thought he looked like some sort of demented clown in it. He was so busy frowning at his reflection he didn't hear or sense someone come in.

"Misty? What in Athena's name are you doing in my rooms?" the stern, annoyed voice snapped Misty back to his senses. A glanced in the mirror showed that standing behind him was the one thing he dreaded to see most. There was Lord Aphrodite, in his Cloth, looking very unhappy. He swallowed, suddenly not wanting to turn around. "Misty…" Aphrodite said very soft and neutral tone that was somehow more frightening than him yelling, "you had better have a very, _very_ good explanation about why you snuck into my rooms and thought you had a right to go through my things without my permission."

Knowing full well that he couldn't really say anything in his defense, the younger Saint turned around. "I'm sorry.." he began, but stopped when he realized Lord Aphrodite was just staring him. He paused, uncertain of what to do as the Pisces Saint dropped his head into his hand, shoulders shading. It took him a few moments to hear the barely muffled snickers and he flushed with embarrassment. After a minute or so, Lord Aphrodite got himself under control.

"What did you do to yourself?" he said, amused. Misty wasn't sure if this or the annoyance was better. Lord Aphrodite crossed over to him, then leaned around him to pull something out a drawer Misty hadn't noticed before. "Here.." the older Saint said and preceded to use the cloth he now held to clean off the makeup. Misty tried not to squirm, knowing that this was his own fault and Lord Aphrodite had ever right to punish him for it. "There, better," Lord Aphrodite said, putting his rag down, "but you know…"

"Lord Aphrodite…?" Misty said in confusion as the Pisces Saint just gazed at him.

"Hold still," Lord Aphrodite commanded suddenly, and Misty froze as the Pisces Saint reached around him, carefully selected something off the table and went to work.

It was a strange feeling having makeup put on you, Misty found. He tried his best to hold absolutely still as Lord Aphrodite worked, although it seemed to take forever until the older Saint stepped back, a satisfied look on his face.

"There " he said, "now look at yourself Misty." The boy did as he was bid, glancing behind him. Gazing back at the mirror was someone one…else. Someone who looked as if he might be able to be worthy of Lord Aphrodite one day.

"I..like it," Misty heard himself say.

"You do carry it well," Lord Aphrodite said in a satisfied tone. "I'll have to show you how to do it yourself one day. Now will you tell me what you were doing here I the first place?"

"Ah, I finished that new attack I was working on!" Misty replied, suddenly remembering his real errand here. "It's done and it works just like I thought it would! Nothing can touch me!"

"Nothing, hmm? Care to show me?" Lord Aphrodite asked and Misty felt himself light up.

"Sure!" he hopped down from the stool in front of the table and headed out, sensing Lord Aphrodite following him. This time he felt confident. He had done something extraordinary, even for a Silver Saint. This time, he would be able to impress Lord Aphrodite.


End file.
